Vaughan sets pulse racing

Dazzling: Michael Vaughan on his way to a magnificent 197

By Scyl Berry at Trent Bridge

12:01AM BST 11 Aug 2002

England (341-5) trail India (357) by 16 runs

The rest of this match, if the weather holds, should help to provide a definitive statement about the true nature of Sachin Tendulkar. After Michael Vaughan's dazzling innings of 197, and if England can take a substantial lead on first innings, India will have to bat well if they are not to go 2-0 down in this four-match series.

Tendulkar, without doubt, is a great talent with the finest of cricket minds. The whispered question increasingly asked is whether he can perform when the pressure of the situation is at its keenest, when there are Test series or one-day finals to be won or lost. His response today or tomorrow will be eagerly awaited by spectators at the ground, TV viewers in India, and by historians of the game who have to assign his place.

In his attempt to keep alive India's quest to win this series, Tendulkar will at least have a decent if turning pitch to bat on and two very fine innings to emulate, the first by his own teammate, Virender Sehwag, the second by England's opening batsman. The match was behind schedule after the loss to rain of half of the first two days' play, but yesterday Vaughan made up for lost time by hitting his highest first-class score at a rattling pace and opening up the game to a definite conclusion.

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It is improbable that another tall England batsman, Peter May, could have batted more finely or handsomely than Vaughan yesterday; and inconceivable that any of Vaughan's distinguished predecessors as a Yorkshire and England opener - Geoff Boycott, Len Hutton and Herbert Sutcliffe - could have scored more quickly. He reached his fourth Test century off his 123rd ball, roughly half the number of balls traditionally taken for a hundred by England batsmen. In the extended session between lunch and tea, Vaughan scored 99 runs.

The damage done to Test batsmen by one-day cricket has been frequently remarked upon, but here was a remarkable display of the benefits as Vaughan beat his previous Test best of 120 with swiftness as well as certainty. It had to be an uncommonly good, or wide, ball to stop Vaughan scoring, and once it was through the in-field it was irretrievable in spite of the recent rain.

Vaughan scored so quickly that Marcus Trescothick was not missed. Perhaps, though, the greatest compliment was the response of the England dressing-room when he reached 50. It is customary for teammates to make a show of pouring on to the balcony and applauding a landmark, but in Vaughan's case a couple came out to clap (the others may have been glued to the racing coverage, willing an accident upon the horse that brought Mike Atherton £10,000 in winnings). Vaughan's class and run-production are being taken for granted; at 27 he is at last established.

The excellence of the pitch, although the ball is turning, was first established when Harbhajan Singh clouted the second-fastest 50 ever recorded for India, off 33 balls. The ball banana'd under the morning cloud cover yet the swashbuckling Sikh could trust his eye, and the trueness of the Trent Bridge turf, and the ropiness of England's seam bowling which was again too short and wide. Harbhajan checked his stroke, perhaps in disbelief, when a straight and fullish ball came along and was caught at wide mid-off.

Steve Harmison's figures were somewhat flattering but he will surely bowl better on hard pitches in Australia for less reward. Matthew Hoggard, after a quick clubbing by Harbhajan, took the final wicket with the perfect outswinger. As gratifying as any feature of England's bowling was Andrew Flintoff who showed that, in addition to angling the ball into righthanders from short of a length, he can now swing it away on a full one. But overall this was England's poorest bowling effort since the opening Test of the summer, and they must not excel at the unconventional at the expense of traditional English strengths.

Robert Key's debut innings was satisfactory as far as it went, which was always on the front foot except for one top-edged hook and the pull he dragged into his stumps. His temperament looked sound as he ignored Sourav Ganguly standing in his crease directing the field before Key's first two balls in Test cricket, then cover-drove his third ball - a half-volley - for three. Best of all though was his slip-fielding: if Key can hold down a place in the batting line-up, and at first slip, it will make up for the growing lack of specialists as neither Vaughan nor Trescothick field there.

Vaughan shared, or more precisely dictated, stands of 56 with Key, 165 from 237 balls with Mark Butcher, and 63 with Alec Stewart. Vaughan's majestic ease made batting appear far more difficult for his partners but whoever the batsman was, he was helped by India's fielding which featured a comical overthrow and several misfields. It is the same sluggishness which makes the running between wickets of their Test team (not their one-day team) so lamentable and goes some way to explaining the poverty of their overseas record.

Butcher was content to push the ball around while Vaughan played strokes that were a model of English orthodoxy. One impeachable offbreak from Harbhajan was wristed to the midwicket boundary; some of the front-foot drives brought actual gasps from the capacity crowd, Indian supporters again being notably few; one of his back-foot pulls, off Ajit Agarkar's first ball, was so pulverising that the bowler had stomach for little more until the final hour when he returned to take Vaughan's outside edge, or so Rudi Koertzen believed. It was wonderful entertainment, and for 396 runs in the day, albeit the last nine overs were lost to supposed bad light, the crowd had to fork out no more than Friday's had done for 25 overs of cricket.

Nasser Hussain soon followed Butcher, who edged an offbreak to slip. In Harbhajan's next over Hussain was caught, sweeping and gloving a dolly catch to Parthiv Patel. When John Crawley was out, caught at cover off an inside edge on to his pad, Vaughan had to rein himself in but he still kept putting the ball away: playing on bad pitches at Headingley has made him eager to fill his boots when he does get in.

If Hussain was aggrieved to miss out in such conditions, the dismissal was nothing to make him change his mind about continuing as England's captain until the end of next season. He reiterated as much in a Channel Four interview broadcast at lunchtime: "I'd like to carry on for one more year from September as we are going in the right direction. I'm still enjoying the job and it's great to see people like Jones come in and do well." It would cap it all if England's seamers can tighten up, dismiss Tendulkar cheaply for a fourth time, and bowl India out for a 2-0 lead.